Subliminal Verses Tour Shadowsfall, Lamb of God, Slipknot 4/15/05 Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
By Robin Steeley
The Subliminal Verses Tour came to town tonight at the Memorial Coliseum in downtown Portland. Despite the lines outside the crowd was small for a venue and headliner of this size, in fact I have never seen a Slipknot show with this many empty seats, with this incredible line up, I’m surprised the venue isn’t sold out.
Shadows Fall was the first band to go on tonight, and although I have seen them before I was exceptionally impressed with their set tonight. The band has an old school classic metal sound with a modern twist and it is crushingly heavy at times, and clean and melodic at others. After opening with a new song “The Light That Blinds”, They ran through a short set of their classics and some newer songs from their Century Media release entitled ‘The War Within’. Frontman Brian Fair captivates the crowd with six-foot dreads whipping crazily in all directions as he works the front of the stage. They had a remote control car called the whiskey wagon that came out and brought them drinks in honor of Dimebag as the crowd chanted his name. Their brand of old school thrash and new metal with vibrant guitar action, blast beats in percussion, and simmering bass all punctuated by the throat ripping vocals of Brian Flair is a formula that works excellently for them.
Lamb of God came on next and blew everyone away with the sickeningly brutal songs from both ‘Ashes of the Wake” and their latest Epic release “Ashes of the Wake” as well as throwing in ‘Bloodletting’ from the old Burn The Priest days which was straight gut wrenching death, played fast, hard, and sick. Their overall sound is sheer violent chaos delivered flawlessly. The pit goes into action and the crowd is screaming for the wall of death even though the band doesn’t lead it anymore due to massive injuries of their fans who they are fiercely loyal to.
After the set change, it was time for the mighty Slipknot to hit the stage. The anticipation in the room grew to tangible levels as the crowd waited for the curtain to drop and the lights to start. The band appeared behind the screen and started their intro as the crowd went crazy screaming “Slipknot, Slipknot!” Never a disappointment the band features an elaborate stage show full of lights, action, giant video screens, and Corey Taylor with his rainbow colored hair. Word has it that he almost cancelled the show because his voice was giving out after an extra long set the night before but after asking for the crowd’s patience with his vocals he screamed right into the set and although there were times throughout the night he struggled, he did an amazing job of carrying out the set. At one point in time, he yelled out “This isn’t the fucking Roseland!” referring to the local club, they are banned from for reportedly starting a fire in the dressing room. The drums were all on hydraulics, raised and lowered off the ground as members hung precariously off the edge of the kit. Amazingly halfway through the set Joey pulls a Tommy Lee and raises high into the air suspended over the crowd while strapped into his kits and keeping up a furious death defying metal beat. For my favorite moment of the night, Corey pukes on stage through his mask and “Yumm bacon.” Overall, they were as incredible as ever, managing to create a violent imagery and full scale metal mayhem. Furious guitar solos throughout, brutal vocals interspersed with melody and a theatrical stage show that never disappoints. Check out this tour if you get the chance.
Slipknot Set List
15 MINUTE HOME MOVIE
PRELUDE 3.0 INTRO
BLISTER EXISTS
DISASTERPIECE
BEFORE I FORGET
LEFT BEHIND
LIBERATE
VERMILION
PULSE OF THE MAGGOTS
JOEY SOLO
VERMILION PT. 2 VIDEO
THE NAMELESS
IOWA
HERETIC ANTHEM
EVERYTHING ENDS
DUALITY
SPIT IT OUT
PEOPLE = SHIT
GET THIS
WAIT AND BLEED
SURFACING
DANGER KEEP AWAY
